Problems Plague Return of ROTC Programs

Even though President Obama urged college campuses to welcome back military recruiters following the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," The New York Times says there are still some issues to iron out.

Many universities and colleges were not supportive of Reserve Officer Training Corps programs on campus because of the military's ban on openly gay personnel. But with the repeal coming to an end, the military will still be hard-pressed to bring new ROTC programs to campus because of budget constraints. There also is little enthusiasm for ROTC programs at most of America's colleges, with only about 10 to 20 students participating in them at schools that host them.

"I would be the most surprised person in the world if the military came back to Harvard or Yale," Diane Mazur, a former Air Force officer and current law professor at the University of Florida, told the Times. "The military doesn't have the staffing or the funding, and it's very expensive to start a new ROTC detachment."

Another issue is the military's ban on transgender service members -- a student at Stanford wants to keep ROTC programs off campus until that policy is changed.

Read the full story here.